Changes to Charter School Laws

1. Changes to Charter School Laws Jason Hancock Deputy Chief of Staff

2. Charter School Working Group • Idaho Association of School Administrators • Idaho School Boards Association • Idaho Charter School Network • Coalition of Idaho Charter School Families • Idaho Public Charter School Commission • Idaho State Department of Education

3. Charter School Working Group • Met and examined Idaho’s charter school laws from June 2012 through February 2013 • Made recommendations around governance, oversight, and funding

4. H206- Charter School Funding • Provides facilities funding for public charter schools • Requires public charter schools to pay an authorizer fee to their authorizing entity

5. Charter School Facilities Funding • Creates a state funding stream for charter schools to pay facility costs • Calculated as a percentage of the average amount of per pupil funding received by school districts for bond & plant facility levies • FY14 distribution equal to 20% of statewide average funding for school districts ($1.4m) • FY15 distribution equal to 30% of statewide average funding for school districts ($2.1m)

6. Charter School Facilities Funding • Future distributions will increase by 10% each time public schools budget increases by 3% or more, and decrease by 10% each time public schools budget is cut, year-over-year, otherwise, stays the same as previous year • Minimum distribution percentage is 20% • Maximum distribution percentage is 50%

7. Charter School Facilities Funding • For virtual charters, funding is the lesser of the formula calculation or 50% of the virtual charter school’s actual facility costs

8. Charter School Authorizer Fees • Charter schools must pay their authorizer a fee to defray the authorizer’s cost of monitoring, evaluation and oversight • For charter schools authorized by the Public Charter School Commission, the fee is equal to each charter school’s proportional share of the Commission’s appropriation, plus 15% • Proportions determined by formula found in 33-5208(8)

9. Charter School Authorizer Fees • For charter schools authorized by any other entity besides the Commission, the fee is the lesser of the actual, documented authorizer cost or the formula calculation found in 33-5208(8) – generally $4,300 to $17,200, depending on charter school size • All charter schools are allowed to divert up to 10% of their fee to pay membership fees to any organization that provides technical assistance, training and advocacy for charter schools

10. H221- Charter School Governance • Eliminates notices of defect • Require periodic renewals of all public charter schools • Create performance contracts for charter schools • Create a process that allows school-district authorized charter schools to become LEAs • Allow the SDE to reduce the front-loading of charter school funding if notified by the school’s authorizer that the school is fiscally unsound

11. H221- Charter School Governance • Provide for procedures upon dissolution of a charter school • Allow additional authorizers (colleges and universities) • Allow for direct approval of public charter schools by colleges and universities, while maintaining the law’s current school district notification and feedback procedures • Reform the qualifications and appointing authorities for members of the Public Charter School Commission, to better align Idaho law with best practices

12. Questions? Jason Hancock jhancock@sde.idaho.gov (208) 332-6853